The Golden Apple
by PF0
Summary: In one day, Olympus will die. Unless the Doctor and Amy can successfully locate a god who may hold the secret to a life-giving garden that has been missing for thousands of years. All while battling renegade immortals, a hundred-headed dragon, a Titan, and the best soldiers in the Galaxy. Without the TARDIS.
1. Chapter 1

It was that hour when everything was silent. Everyone was asleep, there were no cars on the streets, no animals stirred; even the wind seemed to be frozen over.

Everything was tranquil until Amy Pond heard a knock at the door.

She bolted upright. No one arrived at her house at this time of night. No one except one person.

Some years back, Amy would have believed it to be the police, possibly informing her of someone's death.

But now it could only be one man. Smiling, straightening his tweed jacket, and failing an attempt at casual conversation before he brought forward how the world might end this week. Maybe in a fez, if it was that kind of event.

But it wasn't the Doctor, not this time. The knocking pattern was all wrong, and Amy would have heard the TARDIS materialize. She could hear it miles away.

Assuming he still had the TARDIS. It had been so long, and she had only seen him the one Christmas, two years after Lake Silencio.

She made her way out of bed and down the stairs, careful not to wake Rory, turned the knob, and opened the front door.

She looked down. A blond woman was standing on her doorstep. Amy turned on a light.

The woman looked to be in her mid-forties, but if she were asked she would swear to be no older than twenty-nine. She stood straight up like a javelin, wore a white blouse and high heels. Her face, which had been applied generously with makeup, had the tell-tale shine of cosmetic surgery.

"Amy!" The woman smiled.

Amy raised an eyebrow and yawned. "Hello?" she said as if she didn't quite believe she was there.

A fly buzzed around Amy's head. She hit the air, missing it entirely.

"Amy? Don't you remember me?"

"Er, no."

"From school? Yes, you do. Now do your mate a favor and get in the car, I need your help."

"I've never seen you in my life, I don't think…"

She sighed. "All right, it's about the Doctor."

Amy was now interested. The blonde handed her a rolled-up piece of paper. "He asked me to give this to you."

The paper was white, with several lines of black, easy-to read text.

POLICE TELEPHONE

FREE

FOR USE OF

PUBLIC

ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE

OBTAINABLE IMMEDIATELY

OFFICERS AND CARS  
RESPOND TO

URGENT CALLS  
PULL TO OPEN

She read the last line aloud, and turned the paper over.

_Come along, Pond, _it said, in very familiar handwriting.

Amy weighed her options. "I think I'll get in the car."

The fly buzzing about Amy's head had managed to find its way into the sedan. _Lovely._

A heap of rubbish was in the passenger seat of the car, so Amy sat in the back, sheltered from the elements by a grubby blue blanket. She was too tired to ask where it had been. "So, your name?"

The blond woman was behind the wheel. After a few moments' pause, she said "Aphrodite."

"Not _the_ Aphrodite?"

The car jerked suddenly, screeching. A dog barked in the distance.

Aphrodite didn't answer.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. When the blonde finally succeeded in parking, she and Amy made their way to the front door a typical squat, whitewashed home.

"Hephaestus, you can come out now."

The fly that had been previously orbiting Amy's head began to grow and change, becoming humanoid.

The door to the house opened. A figure came out and struck the creature when it was halfway between insect and homo sapien. A milky fluid began to stream out of its pincers.

"Ares, what did I tell you about that?" Aphrodite scolded the figure, who seemed to think that punching someone was a perfectly okay display of endearment. He had a muscular upper body and huge biceps, with sinuous, lithe legs that guaranteed him first place in any marathon it took his fancy to run. He had darkish skin, beady eyes, and a mouth that looked used to barking orders or yelling for beer.

"We have your friend," Aphrodite called out to someone in the house, in a way that generally failed to be in any way sweet.

"The cover story?" Nobody answered the all-too familiar voice. "I told you it wouldn't work," the Time Lord said, answering his own question, and Amy brushed past Ares and bolted into the house.

"Doctor?"

She found her old friend sitting uncomfortably on a stained sofa in the midst of pizza boxes and energy drinks. Somebody had apparently thought it a good idea to drink Red Bull out of urns and conch shells.

"Pond." He jumped up from his post in the midst of the mess and hugged her. "Sorry, how long has it been? I've been doing some _stuff_ out in space, and I haven't kept track…"

"A couple weeks since Christmas?"

"Good. Cool. Now, I see you've met my friends, er, Ares, Hephaestus, and Aphrodite."

The three beings had entered the house and stood in the doorway to the room.

"Doctor, why am I here?"

"Well, Amy…" He looked back at the fly-man. "When did you get the Tritovore?"

"It's Hephaestus," Aphrodite explained. "I don't think he can change back."

Hephaestus made a clicking noise.

"Yes," the Doctor said, "you'll have to be like that, at least for the next few days." No one bothered to question the fact that the Doctor could speak fly. Hephaestus buzzed irritably and went back outside.

Amy cleared her throat. "It's always nice to meet your _god friends_, that's what you are, aren't you? But that is no reason to come to my house in the middle of the night…"

"I need your help. One trip." The Doctor smiled unconvincingly.

"Why me," Amy said, "and not Rory?"

"I insisted on Rory, but _apparently_ he's 'too Roman.'" He made air quotes with his fingers.

"Aren't the Roman gods…"

"Yes. But don't mention it to them. They're a bit sore on the subject."

"Doctor!" Ares bellowed. "Your decision?"

The Doctor looked at Amy. "Will you, Amy Pond, accompany me to Olympus?"

"Can you get me back by morning?"

"Absolutely." He stuck out his hand, Amy took it, and together they followed Ares outside.

The Fly formerly known as Hephaestus had made his way to the helm of a gigantic bronze machination that could only be described as a space train.

"Luxury hyperspace jumper, height of 42nd-century technology," the Doctor explained. "I parked the TARDIS on it a while back, don't worry."

Ares and Aphrodite boarded the train, leaving the Doctor and Amy outside in the steam. Hephaestus clicked and motioned toward the vehicle.

"I think that's Tritovore for all aboard," the Doctor smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

"All aboard?" Amy said, mocking the Doctor's choice of phrase.

"Yes, _all aboard_. It's what they say on trains."

"I've been on many trains, and not once have I heard anyone say 'all aboard.'"

"You just haven't been on the right kind. Choo-choo, Thomas the Tank Engine, Orient-Express, brilliant in space by the way. Nostalgia trains."

She let the Doctor ramble on about his opinion of the right kind of train as they clambered onto a set of stairs that had been pulled out of the doorway like a drawbridge.

She gasped as she saw the interior. The outside may have been crafted from a dull bronze with scratches here and there, but the inside was completely plush, with rich velvet cushions, expensive-looking carpeting, and crystal chandeliers. The windows offered a view of the train's surroundings, which unfortunately were a Leadworth street, making the extravagant conveyance look out of place.

"42nd century train," the Doctor said as they sat down in a booth. Amy wanted to curl up and fall asleep, but the Doctor had other ideas. "Right about the time of the Second Great and Bountiful Human Empire. See that over there?" He pointed to a glowing sphere on a cord, hanging from a small silver hook on the wall. "That's where they used to keep the Ood, before I had a word with them."

"For first time hyperspace users," a female automated voice said as the passengers got situated, "the experience may be jarring. Please fasten your seat belts prior to the jump, and if you begin to feel disconcerted, close your eyes. The feeling should eventually pass."

"Doesn't the TARDIS have hyperspace?" Amy asked the Doctor.

"Yes, but it runs a bit more efficiently, and much more quickly. What this jumper can do in an hour the TARDIS can do in seconds."

"Sixteen jumps to Olympus," the voice said, first in English, then in Ancient Greek, then in several other languages Amy didn't recognize. "First jump in five, four, three, two…"

The floor seemed to fall out from their feet. Beams of light streamed through the windows at breakneck speed. It was painful to think. And then, after an interminable five seconds, all was still. The train was sailing smoothly through a blue-green nebula. Stars and planets slowly went by.

Amy was gasping for breath. The Doctor was grinning like an idiot.

"Faster than the speed of light," he thrilled. "One down, fifteen to go. Next in, oh, twenty minutes."

After she caught her breath, Amy asked a question that had been on her mind. "So, aren't Hephaestus and Aphrodite married?"

"What?"

"I read it in a book when I was a kid."

"Oh, well, yes, they are, but it's no big secret that she has no love for him. He used to make her things, to sort of buy her appreciation, but it didn't work. Eventually he caught her with Ares, and that's why he's here, to keep an eye on them. Plus he doesn't trust Ares to drive the train." The Doctor paused and looked around. "Or to do anything really."

Amy shot another question in the Doctor's direction. "Why is Hephaestus a fly? He's a god, he can be whatever he wants, right?"

"That's really the thing, isn't it? The Gods of Olympus have been past their prime for centuries. They look older, their forces are fading, their spheres of control aren't really theirs anymore. Anytime they try any magic, there's always the chance that one of them ends up looking like an insect for a week."

They watched the stars go by, and the train was in peace until they heard Ares yelling a few seats back. Something about hitting people with large sticks, blood, and how he hadn't had decent lamb in centuries.

Amy lowered her voice. "What's wrong with Ares?"

"Oh, a few years back he made a bet that he could defeat every god in alphabetical order. Someone found out that all he wanted to do was avoid fighting Zeus, and he fell into a sort of depression, developed a drinking problem."

"Drinking problem?"

"You saw the Red Bull. He becomes hyperactive, attacking anything that moves, and then he takes what he calls a power nap."

"And that is?"

"Weeks-long hibernation."

"Ah."

"Trust me, today he was quite tame."

Another silent period. Amy began to make shapes out of the clouds in the nebula until a thought struck her.

"Doctor, why are you so keen to work with them?"

"What?" This seemed to take him by surprise.

The automated voice resounded through the train again.

"Second hyperspace jump in five, four, three…"

* * *

It was about an hour before dawn when they reached their destination. The train got off at a dim spaceport. Amy stretched and emerged from her half-slumber as she and the Doctor rose from their booth and started out of the train.

The spaceport was closed off on all sides; it could have been underground or miles in the sky, it was impossible to tell. It appeared to be a cross between an ultramodern air terminal and a 19th-century train station. A uniformed officer sat in a booth, reading a newspaper.

Hephaestus, wearing a train conductor's hat which looked ridiculous placed upon a pair of compound eyes, led the party through several stainless steel corridors lit by gaslights.

An immense window befell them as they turned another corridor. The Doctor and Amy stopped to behold the planet of Olympus.

Steel beams and half-completed electric wiring rose up from an abandoned Greek-style city. Cracked glass panes decorated the metal rods, and dark shapes converged in the shadows. Chemicals hovered in the air.

"It's worse than I remember it," Amy heard the Doctor say.

But she wasn't listening, not now. She was still recovering from the extreme disappointment that was the home of the gods. In her childhood, she'd read of the majestic place, with exquisite buildings, creatures, and people, worshipped by the beauty-loving Greeks. To see it like this was like seeing her parents drunk.

There was one redeeming quality to the planet, however. In the distance, above the smoggy blanket that covered the city, was a craggy mountain with a pure-white temple positioned on its peak.

She was brought back from her thoughts by the Doctor, who said something about a shuttle taking them to Mount Olympus.

* * *

The crystal-white columned building seen from the spaceport was much larger up close, but swaths less spectacular.

The marble was cracked and discolored; dust had gathered in every crevice. Part of the building's roof had caved in at the entrance, and the pillars had not fared well against the outside world.

Mount Olympus mirrored the gods that inhabited it, obscure and timeworn.

Hephaestus started up the set of stairs leading to the temple. Aphrodite followed, walking closer to Ares than acceptable for a married woman.

"We have to do something about the roof," she complained. "The gases streaming in are rubbish for my complexion."

_Like you have one_, Amy thought. _You're already orange._

The inside of the temple was decorated with sculpted friezes on either side, above rows of torches. Typical classical art, with images of immortals floating around eating grapes, punishing people, and seemingly competing to see who could wear the least clothing.

But they didn't get much time to admire the artwork. At the other end of the temple, twelve thrones were arranged in a semicircle around a circular reflecting pool embedded in the floor. At the bottom of a pool were the hands of an enormous clock, the center of which jutted out of the pool in a flaming spire.

At the rim of the pool, a woman was there to greet the five travelers. At first glance, she was a normal gray-haired grandmother, the type whose prized possession was her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. But as she came further into view, it became clear she was proud and contemptuous, and would become dangerous if she didn't get her way.

"Good morning, Queen Hera." The Doctor did a quick head-bow.

"Who's the Tritovore?"

'Hephaestus."

"Oh," the woman spat. "I can't see much of a difference. The new head might be an improvement."

If flies could frown, Hephaestus did.

"How is Lord Zeus?" Aphrodite inquired.

"Still ill," Hera said.

The immortals' demeanors grew grim. Shallow as they were, they definitely understood the gravity of the situation.

"We will hold an Olympian council at daybreak, at a more reasonable hour. Lady _Athena_ will preside."

The Doctor smiled. Far as Amy could tell, he'd had some history with Athena.

* * *

Day was breaking on Olympus. The sky was a deep pink with bits of orange. If not for the murky chemicals in the air, it might have actually been beautiful.

The twelve thrones had been almost entirely filled by eleven beings; the largest, central one was empty.

A woman, a few positions from the center, rose.

"I, Athena, call this Olympian Council to order. Present: eleven gods and two guests."

She motioned toward the Doctor and Amy. The Doctor nodded.

Of all the deities present, Athena seemed to have been the only one who had aged well. Unlike the other gods, she was physically fit, and didn't raise the question of whether or not she had gone under the knife or used steroids. Even though her raven hair was streaked with gray, her eyes burned with a cunning fire.

"Many of you have been asking about the status of Lord Zeus's health. Zeus is alive, but he is not well."

She lowered her head down to the disc in the center of the thrones. "In one more cycle, the Clock of Ages will mark the beginning of the Sixth Age. You are all aware of the story that in the last days of the Fifth, a new force will rise up to overpower the gods."

As she spoke, the water in the reflecting pool rippled, as if her words made it tense.

"But we shall not despair. I believe all are familiar with the Garden of the Hesperides?"

The gods dropped a few comments, and before long, the inhabitants of Olympus were thrown into a heated argument. One, a chubby, curly-haired man in a light brown suit, raised his hand like he was in a classroom.

"Yes, Lord Hermes, you may speak."

"It's just that, no one knows where the Garden of the Hesperides is. Even if we tried, we couldn't possibly search the entire Universe in one day."

"That is why I have sent for two of the Universe's mightiest warriors to locate the Garden and bring us a life-giving golden apple to restore the power of Olympus."

All eyes were on the Doctor and Amy.

The Doctor appeared shocked that Athena had labeled him a mighty warrior. Amy spoke up.

"Yes, absolutely, we'll do it." She tried to be enthusiastic, smiling and holding up a fist, but really she was in as much disbelief as everyone else.

* * *

The rest of the council was a blur to Amy. Arguments, criticism of the Doctor, et cetera. When the Olympians had more or less agreed to Athena's plan, they filed out, leaving the Doctor and Amy alone with the Wisdom Goddess.

"You are to leave immediately," Athena commanded.

"Yes, ma'am." the Doctor said. He turned to leave, but turned around. "The Sixth Age, that could be just a myth. What makes you so sure that it will destroy Olympus?"

Athena led them to a frieze illustrating a being cut into pieces by a smaller figure, wielding a sickle.

"Kronos overthrows Ouranos," Athena said. She led them to a similar frieze, with a figure throwing bolts of lightning at a series of giants. "Zeus overthrows Kronos."

Athena walked the Doctor and Amy to the last frieze, depicting twelve figures, hiding somberly from an unknown threat. She pointed to a detail on the right.

"The downfall of each age is embodied in an image in the right corner. Do you see that shape, in the corner? It has been prophesied that that will be the downfall of Olympus."

The object in question was circular, with four lines jutting out from its sides and curling around it.

"Ever since Lord Zeus first showed it to me I believed it to be a spider, and since a very young age I have fought a personal war against Arachne and her children."

The Doctor squinted up at the carving.

"I've seen that shape before…" He raised his eyebrows as he stared at it ever more closely, and then smiled, clapping his hands together. "No, it can't be it, yes, probably is a spider."

"Doctor, I demand that you tell me what you know."

"It's nothing, just an old memory, that's all…"

Athena looked unconvinced, but continued.

"Hera planted the Garden as soon as she married Zeus, to ensure the future of the Olympians. Then it disappeared, taking our chance of survival with it."

"How do you lose a garden?" Amy asked.

"The Garden was once a location on Earth, along with Mount Olympus, but as the years went by, their locations shifted into space. Olympus became a planet, and the Garden of the Hesperides became a moon. About two thousand years ago, it fell out of orbit. The time was so far from the Sixth Age that most no one cared, and any gods that did and tried to find it failed."

Amy crossed her arms. "What makes you so sure we can find it? We're not exactly gods."

"Exactly. Anyone who managed to take an apple for themselves was not an Olympian. Perseus, Heracles, Hippomenes, all mortal."

"Absolutely," the Doctor pressed on. "How do we do it?"

"Nereus, the old Sea God, disappeared at around the same time as the Garden. He has been shown to have strong links with the Hesperides, and they share many secrets. If you locate him, he could give you its location."

"What makes you so sure he'll cooperate?"

"He likely will not. Heracles gained the location of the Garden after defeating Nereus in battle."

The Doctor shrugged. Deep down, Amy knew that he was not anticipating battling a sea god in the least.

"Where could Nereus be?" he asked.

"I can't say I know. The nymphs' stories about him give the effect that he frequents bars and taverns, the seedier the better."

"I've got a few ideas, then."

"In that case, I wish you both godspeed." She turned to go, leaving the Doctor and his companion alone.

* * *

As they made their way back through the spaceport, Amy asked, "Where do you think this Nereus might be?"

"No idea," the Doctor said briskly, rubbing his hands together.

"So we go bar-hopping until we find- what exactly are we looking for?"

"Old man, white beard, possibly a trident, I don't know, could be something completely different." He was annoyed. His jerky motions and inability to stand up straight spelled that out.

They reached the train they came in. The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the door and it came unlocked with a_ click_.

He strode through the elegant corridor, Amy following close behind, until he reached the final car. The TARDIS was there, its POLICE BOX label glowing in the dim light.

He replaced the door sign he had given Amy the previous night.

Then, he snapped his fingers; the doors swung open.

The inside of the TARDIS was pitch black. Someone had disabled it.

"No, no, no, no, no!" the Doctor exclaimed.

The Doctor and Amy had to locate a faceless god and a missing garden, recover a golden apple, and bring it back to Olympus in less than a day. All without the TARDIS.

**Thanks for reading. I'm at work on chapter three, and it should be out by the end of the week. An old enemy of the Doctor will appear. Can you guess which?**

**Please review, I'd like to hear your comments and opinions.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Olympus Spaceport**

The Doctor looked around the cavernous husk that used to be his ship. Suddenly, he broke into a grin. "Whoever did this, they must be brilliant!"

"Doctor," Amy said, "may I remind you they disabled your TARDIS." Something she never would get used to was the Doctor's level of admiration for his foes.

"Yes, but do you see the way they did it? This is _beautiful_. Takes real finesse!"

"You can fix it, can't you?"

"Give me some time," he said, glancing at his watch, positioned on the wrong side of his wrist. He frowned. "Actually, more time than we have."

He leaped out of the TARDIS, ran through the train, and toward an an information desk.

He hit a small metal bell on the desk. Behind it was the uniformed officer they saw at their arrival, his head shielded by a newspaper. He didn't respond. The Doctor rang the bell again. No reaction.

"Hello?" the Doctor said. "Hello?" He waved his hand in front of the officer's face. Nothing. Fed up, the Doctor climbed over the desk and tore the newspaper away from the man.

"Oh my god," Amy breathed. The man, if he could be called that, was vaguely humanoid and sickeningly moist. He had no eyes, resembling a deep-sea fish; the only openings on his face were two small black nostrils and a half-opened mouth. He was a sickly gray color, with deep purple veins twisting across his form. Now up close, they could see his uniform had been hastily thrown on.

The Doctor threw off the creature's shirt. A ropelike tendril stretched from its body to a pool of green liquid on the floor.

"Is that an umbilical cord?" Amy asked.

The Doctor reached out his hand to touch it, but the creature jerked around and struck the Doctor. Amy could hear the Doctor's hearts pounding. The Doctor bluntly hit its back with the back of his arm. The creature made a gasping noise and fell to the floor.

"Venusian aikido. Haven't done that in years," the Doctor said, breathing heavily.

"What _was_ that?" Amy asked, staring at the unconscious man.

"Bad. If that is here, then this is very very bad."

"What's bad?" a voice drawled from across the corridor.

Amy and the Doctor turned. Hermes, the portly, curly-haired man from the Olympian council, was leaning against the wall, smirking.

"Nothing, Hermes. What do you want?" The Doctor replaced the newspaper in front of the creature's face.

"I couldn't help overhearing that you were in a bit of a fix. Something about a broken TARDIS?"

"If you did this, Hermes, I swear to you…"

"I did nothing like it."

The Doctor scanned Hermes' body with his screwdriver. "All right. Not lying. Please continue."

"I did nothing like it. But I _can_ supply you with another means of transportation, provided you have a means of payment."

Hermes was now grinning evilly. Amy half-expected devil's horns to sprout from his head.

The Doctor nodded, as if to say "carry on," and Hermes led the Time Lord and Amy through the spaceport's mazelike corridors to a hangar, showing them to a craft covered with a sheet.

Hermes threw off the sheet and revealed the most brilliant pod any of them had ever seen. Literally, brilliant. Any speck of light in the room was reflected by the white-gold ship, which looked to be made of sunbeams.

The Doctor tried to hide a gasp. "That's not…"

"Apollo's sun chariot? It is."

It was ovular, with two thrusters branching out.

"But that's…"

"Not mine. I know. But Apollo entrusted it to me when he fell ill."

"Wait a minute. That doesn't really make the sun come up every day, does it?" Amy asked.

"Well, no. My brother used to fly it around and make it _look_ like he was making the sun come up, to appear more powerful than he actually was. Now, he just uses it for joyrides."

The Doctor tried to appear unimpressed. "Well, I guess it's okay."

Hermes laughed. "Sure. Just _okay_." He opened a hatch in its side, revealing the red leather interior. "One of the last treasures of Olympus. And you haven't seen the best part." He flicked a switch. Instantly the pod changed from white-gold to deep black.

"Dark matter," Hermes crowed. "Virtually untraceable in space, and impenetrable by anyone trying to beam aboard. Now, as I said, it'll cost you."

"What…would you like?"

"Trinkets. It has come to my attention that you, Doctor, collect souvenirs on your travels. You have no idea what a Dalek eyestalk can get you these days."

"I…might be able to arrange something."

* * *

**The **_**Valhalla**_

**3 Months Previously**

Commander Stele of the Twelfth Sontaran Battlefleet stormed through the double doors of the bridge of the _Valhalla_, his flagship. On the way to the viewscreen, he bumped into a young corporal.

"Agh!" he roared, glaring down at the imbecile, an act he enjoyed, being the tallest in the sect at five foot two. "What were you, born yesterday?"

"Yes, sir!" the corporal said, saluting.

"Month of polishing armor, Corporal…"

"Korr, sir. Yes, sir."

Stele hmphed and marched forward to the front of the front of the bridge. "Yes, Officer Stalk?"

Stalk turned around from at the main controls. "Message, sir."

Stele waved his arm. "Play it!"

A muscular man with a shaven head wearing battle armor appeared onscreen. It took a moment for Stele to see that he was _not_ a Sontaran.

"Greetings from Olympus."

"God!" Stele seethed. "We do your business with your kind."

Ares, for of course it was he, continued. "I'd like to propose an alliance. In three months, Olympus will die. They want to cheat death by finding this." A picture of a golden apple appeared onscreen. "I'd like you to find it before they do."

"Sontarans are not mercenaries!"

"No? If we can work together to find this, the power inside it will grant immortality. We will live on forever."

"_We_?"

"I am the god of war. You follow a similar principle?"

"Yes. Glory of war!" Stele thought it over. "You will be our god. We will be your army."

"You've got yourself a deal."

* * *

**The TARDIS**

The Doctor rifled through items in a hexagonal safe in the TARDIS' wall, to find a suitable recompense for Hermes' pod. The Messenger God and Amy carried torches, which the Doctor kept telling them to reposition.

He pulled out a metal disc emblazoned with a C. "Cyberman chestplate?"

"Boring."

"Handbot hand?"

"What do you expect me to do with that?" Hermes jumped down to join the Doctor in his stores. "What about this?" He held up a small white vial.

"Oh, this? Bottle of Flesh?"

"Yes."

"What would you want with Flesh?"

"I have my reasons. Now, will you make the trade or not? You're killing precious time dawdling."

"Right. Take the Flesh…and the chestplate, too. I'm feeling generous."

"For Olympus, eh?"

"Absolutely. Now let's get out of here."

* * *

**Olympus Spaceport**

The Doctor opened the hatch to the gleaming pod, plopped down on a generous swivel chair and began to work the controls. Smoke poured out of the thrusters.

Seconds before liftoff, the Doctor stuck his head back out. "Hermes, you wouldn't know where to find a Nereus, would you?"

"Oh," he said, smiling, "If I were you, I'd check around Zaggit Zagoo."

"Thanks."

Hermes said something else, but it was inaudible over the roar of the engines. Probably "I get around" or "It comes naturally."

The Doctor hit the switch turning the pod to dark matter. The pod's exterior became pitch black, the color of deep space.

A roar, and the Doctor and Amy were gone.

* * *

**Sun Chariot**

"Doctor, do you trust him?"

It took some time for the Doctor to reply. "Hermes was always a con man. But he had nothing to do with the TARDIS going black."

The broken TARDIS had been moved to the back of the pod. It just fit; the lantern on its roof was scraping the pod's ceiling.

"How do you know?"

"Lie detector on the sonic screwdriver."

Like the Doctor's wide knowledge of languages, settings on his sonic screwdriver became less exciting with each one revealed. She would be surprised if he admitted there was something it couldn't do.

"Couldn't your screwdriver be wrong?"

"Amy!" he reprimanded. "The screwdriver is never wrong. Always trust the screwdriver."

"Trust an alien stick over human instinct."

"Exactly."

Amy hadn't exactly meant did the Doctor trust Hermes about the TARDIS, she meant about the pod, about his payment, about really everything.

Time passed. The Doctor sat at the controls, driving the pod as smoothly and easily as one would ride a bicycle. His face, reflected in the window, was conflicted. His eyebrows were dangerously close together. If he had eyebrows, which he didn't.

"What about the thing at the desk?" Amy asked, sitting up from the seat. "What was it?"

The Doctor didn't respond.

"Doctor, what is it? You're keeping something from me. I know you are."

The Doctor turned his head around. "It's a clone. Not entirely formed, recent. And if that's there, it may already be too late."

"Who put it there?"

The Doctor sighed. "Sontarans."

* * *

**The **_**Valhalla**_

**Present Day**

Ares was led aboard the bridge. "I came as soon as I could. We have to move. Athena's set some doctor after the apple."

"Doctor?" Stele was intrigued.

"Yes, doctor. You know him?"

"The Sontarans have an old enemy called the Doctor."

"Well, he's been slowed down, but not for long. He'll be the next ship out of Olympus."

"Stalk!" Stele barked. "Orbit Olympus. Follow the first thing you see move."

Stele had retired to Sontar after years in military service. The hi-grav planet had done his muscles good, but it was there that he had contracted a terminal illness. He quickly went back to his job as commander, lest he die dishonorably, in bed peacefully.

"Pod detected," Stalk said. "Using dark matter, trying to fool us."

"Move!" the commander shouted.

_If I could find the apple and destroy the Doctor, I would have the most glorious death of all the Sontarans._

From behind him, Stele was aware of a chant that rang up in the bridge.

"Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha! Sontar-ha!"

* * *

**Thanks for reading. If all goes according to plan, four more chapters will be enough to tell the whole story. Chapter four should be out soon, probably in about a week. If you didn't know already, Zaggit Zagoo is the home of the bar in which we see Jack Harkness in "The End of Time," and will be the setting of most of the action. Yes, there will be substantially more action, and a few more alien species, in that chapter.**

**Some of the events described in the description of this story haven't happened yet. They're not really spoilers if you're familiar with the Eleventh Labor of Hercules, the basis for this story. The basis besides Doctor Who, which, as I've forgotten to mention, I do not own.  
**

**Please review. I'd like to hear your comments/suggestions/opinions.**


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